Theatre and Performance Studies Commons^™

A Toby Show, May 16-17, 1986, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of A Toby Show by Aurand Harris and directed by Raymond J. Lammers.

A Toby Show brings back to the stage an American folk character of Toby, a country bumpkin who through naiveté, honesty and homespun humor outwits the city slickers. Toby is a great role for an energetic actor. The play is a colorful segment of American drama. This farce melodrama recreates traditional situations and stock characters through jokes and stage business. Starring in Cinderella, Toby enacts a comic variation of the fairy godmother. With music and specialty numbers, the production excitingly evokes …

Waiting For Godot, April 16-19, 1986, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett and directed by Timothy J. Goodmanson.

Synopsis: The NY World-Telegram describes: "GODOT cannot be compared to any other theater work, because its purpose is so different. Two dilapidated bums fill their days as painlessly as they can. They wait for Godot, a personage who will explain their interminable insignificance, or put an end to it. They are resourceful, with quarrels and their dependence on each other, as children are. They pass the time 'which would have passed anyway.' A brutal man of means comes by, leading a weakling …

Godspell, November 20-23, 1985, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of Godspell by John Michael Tebelak and Stephen Schwartz and directed by Karen Wiese.

Synopsis: Based on the Gospel according to Matthew, Godspell is the first musical theatre offering from composer Stephen Schwartz who went on to write such well-known hits as Wicked, Pippin, and Children of Eden. The show features a comedic troupe of eccentric players who team up with Jesus to teach his lessons in a new age through parables, games, and tomfoolery.

Godspell also features the international hit, “Day by Day”, as well as an eclectic blend of songs ranging from pop …

J.B., April 24-27, 1985, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of J.B. by Archibald McLeish directed by Licia Swanson.

Synopsis: A fresh and exalting morality that has great stature. It is one of the memorable works of the century as verse, as drama and as spiritual inquiry...We are deep in the unanswered problems of man's relationship to God in an era of cruel injustices. J.B. is Mr. MacLeish's counterpart of the immortal Job. The glory of the play is that, as in the Book of Job, J.B. does not curse God. When he is reunited with his wife, two humbled but valiant people accept the …

Ubu Rex, February 27-28 & March 1-2, 1985, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of Ubu Rex by Alfred Jarry and directed by George Fosgate.

Synopsis: Ubu Rex, David Copelin's translation of the world's first absurdist play, Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi, unmasks the savagery just below the surface of "normal" human behavior. The play's premiere in Paris in 1896 caused a riot. Set in "Poland – that is to say, nowhere", the play satirizes governments, philosophies, Shakespeare, and the greed and vanity of ordinary human beings. It is also very funny.

Scrooge, December 19-22, 1984, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of Scrooge adapted by Leslie Bricusse and directed by George c. Fosgate.

Synopsis: This timeless musical follows the plot of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, in which the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge undergoes a profound experience of redemption over the course of a Christmas Eve night, after being visited by the ghost of his former partner Jacob Marley and the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future.

Mixed Doubles, July 5-8;19-21 1984, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of Mixed Doubles by Fred Carmichael and directed by George C. Fosgate.

Synopsis: Two interwoven one acts, Love Means Never Having to Say You're Forty and Leonard, these plays feature flexible casting since three characters appear in both plays. In the first, a separated middle aged couple are in the connecting suites of a Mexican motelto have a fling. Their accidental confrontation makes them realize the importance of their years together. In the farcical second act, a golden age couple, unmarried because of tax benefits, is in one suite and a group of inept …

As You Like It, February 22-25, 1984, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of As You Like It by William Shakespeare and directed by Raymond Lammers.

Synopsis: In one of Shakespeare’s most beloved romantic pastoral comedies, we follow the young heroine Rosalind from the court of her vindictive uncle, Duke Frederick, into the Eden-like Forest of Arden, where her banished father is living in exile. In order to avoid running into trouble, Rosalind disguises herself as a young man, “Ganymede,” and, accompanied by her faithful cousin Celia and the court clown, Touchstone, makes her way into the woods. She soon encounters the young, handsome Orlando, who is also …

The Good Woman Of Setzuan, November 16-19, 1983, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

No abstract provided.

Hay Fever, Summer 1982, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of Hay Fever by Noel Coward directed by Raymond Lammers.

Synopsis: Hay Fever is one of Noel Coward’s most durable comedies, continuing to delight audiences with its astute observations on family relationships and rivalries. The action takes place in the house of the Bliss family over the course of a weekend. Judith Bliss, a retired actress, her writer husband David, and their two grown-up children, Simon and Sorel, have all privately invited guests for the weekend, unbeknownst to anyone else. As the guests arrive, it becomes clear that it is not them who will be …

Medea, February 12-15, 1975, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of Medea by Euripides, adapted by Rex Warner and directed by Raymond J. Lammers.

Synopsis: In a continuation of the stories of Jason and the Argonauts, foreign princess and sorceress Medea has murdered her own father to help Jason win the Golden Fleece and the kingdom of Thessaly. They have married and have two sons. Now in ancient Corinth, Medea is told that Jason will be marrying the Corinthian princess. The King of Corinth, anticipating her wrath, sends her into exile. She plans revenge against Jason and negotiates safe haven with the naïve King of …

A Thousand Clowns, February 26-28 And March 1, 1975, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of A Thousand Clowns by Herb Gardner and directed by Alan L. Anderson.

Synopsis: The year is 1962 and bachelor uncle Murray Burns is endeavoring to rear his precocious nephew in N.Y.C. He has tired of writing cheap comedy for a children's television program and finds himself unemployed with some free time to saunter through New York and do everything he has always wanted to do: like standing on Park Avenue in the dawn's early light and hollering, "All right, all you rich people; everybody out in the street for volleyball." When Social Services arrive …

The House Of Blue Leaves, November 20-23, 1974, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of The House of Blue Leaves by John Guare and directed by Donald Webster.

Synopsis: rtie Shaugnessy is a songwriter with visions of glory. Toiling by day as a zookeeper, he suffers in seedy lounges by night, plying his wares at piano bars in Queens, New York, where he lives with his wife, Bananas, much to the chagrin of Artie’s downstairs mistress, Bunny Flingus, who’ll sleep with him anytime but refuses to cook until they are married. On the day the Pope is making his first visit to the city, Artie’s son Ronny goes AWOL …

The Star-Spangled Girl, November 6-9, 1974, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of The Star-Spangled Girl by Neil Simon and directed by George Fosgate.

Synopsis Andy and Norman are two earnest young men using their apartment as a publishing office for a "protest" magazine in San Francisco. Sophie, an Olympic swimmer and all-American girl, moves into another apartment on the same floor. Sophie makes her first appearance paying a good-neighbor visit to the combination home and office of the two publishers. Her friendliness and charm leave Norman hopelessly smitten. Thereafter love, with him, is a determined madness, with the humor of it heightened by her frantic rejection …

Electra, May 12-15, 1965, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of Electra by Sophocles and directed by Raymond Lammers.

Synopsis Electra is a saga about murder and revenge. Agamemnon, the father of the house, was killed by his unfaithful wife, Clytaemnestra, with the help of her sinister lover, Aegisthus, as retribution for having sacrificed their daughter, Iphigenia, to the gods. Meanwhile, her son Orestes was spirited away by their faithful servant Tutor in order to safeguard him against a similar fate. Though Clytaemnestra's weak-willed daughter, Chrysothemis, has made peace with the situation, her defiant sister, Electra, still bemoans her father's fate. Electra awaits the return …

Morris Meiningens Short Plays, February 12-13, 1963, Theatre Arts Discipline

Theatre Programs

University of Minnesota, Morris production of short plays Three for Fun, Take back your Mink from Guys and Dolls, You Can’t Get a Man with a Gun and There’s No Business Like Show Business from Annie Get Your Gun directed by Raymond Lammers.